There is a brand new brewery in Dallas called Deep Ellum Brewing Company. I have had 2 of their brews, a Rye Pilsner and a Double Rye IPA called the Dreamcrusher. The dreamcrusher is really good, and being a local brewery, I had it super fresh on tap. It's nearly 10% and around 100 IBUs, so you may or may not be into that. I have heard great things about their IPA too, haven't gotten to try it yet. You will be close to Flying Saucer on the lake if you're in Rockwall, and they have a ton of beers on tap, and most likely will have something from Deep Ellum Brewing.

I second the Holy Grail in Plano. It's my favorite hang out. The Flying Saucer on the lake is a great choice too. Typically they have about 100 on tap and 300 or so in bottles. Gotta be at least a couple you haven't tried. The Gingerman is a pretty cool place to go too. It's in Uptown. And if you can venture a little further north (Holy Grail is up there) check out Ringo's Pub. And across the strret from it is a Gordon Biersch. Enjoy your trip!

__________________Doritos are evil. Taco Bell is evil. Ergo, Ginger is Satan. - SheckyI should have known the thought of Ginger's wang flopping would be enough to kill the TR. - KCBrewerGinger is famous? - TXCrash

Old Monk is a good choice on the east-ish side of Dallas. Flying Saucer would be the easiest option. There's a few bars in Plano that I'm sure are good but I never get out there to drink.

As far as local beers, Deep Ellum is probably the easiest to find. It's fairly new. I'm not hot on their beers but they are quickly gaining steam. There's also Franconia you can probably find around town but I think their beers are mediocre at best. Rahr is hit or miss. If you can find a cask offering it's worth trying but their regular beers are mediocre. Peticolas is very new but you might find it somewhere. I haven't had their beers but they seem to do lots of hoppy beers.

You would do well to try to snag some south Texas beers. If you like hefe, Live Oak Hefeweizen from Austin is a must. Real Ale makes some interesting beers. The rye pale ale is good. Southern Star beers are all excellent. If you can't find it at the bars you should be able to find it at a decent bottle shop. Jester King out of the Austin area gets a lot of good reviews but I'm not a big fan of anything I've tried. St. Arnold's does some great cask offerings but the regular beers are usually solid sessionables.